An Bord Pleanála has refused planning permission for a large windfarm in east Connemara, overturning an earlier decision by Galway County Council.
The development at Lettermuckoo, Muckanaghkillew would have comprised 27 wind turbines 139 metres tall, as well as access roads, electricity substations, cabling and control buildings.
The windfarm would have had the potential to produce enough electricity to supply almost 40,000 households with power each year, the equivalent of three quarters of households in Co Galway. The 1,000 hectare site, near Rossaveel, is currently used for agriculture and turf cutting.
The An Bord Pleanála inspector reviewing the case recommended that permission be granted subject to 21 conditions being met.
However, the board refused the planned development on a number of grounds, including that it would be an excessively dominant feature and visually obtrusive form of development in the Connemara landscape.
It said the Connemara landscape is one of the principal assets of the tourism industry in Co Galway and the proposed development is located on a prominent site in east Connemara in an area which is part of the Connemara Bog Complex Special Area of Conservation.
The site is also within an area with a high value coastal tourism infrastructure and fisheries resource, it said.
It found that the development would erode the visual and environmental amenity of this area and would contravene the objectives of the County Development Plan 2009-2015 to protect this sensitive landscape designation.
The plan was developed as a collaborative partnership between a wind farm development company and a group of 20 local landowners. It was estimated that construction would have taken 18 months and would have generated employment during that phase. However, just 10 maintenance personnel would have been needed at the windfarm once it was up and running.
The windfarm was expected to have a lifespan of between 20 and 25 years.
A 10 year planning permission was granted for the development by Galway County Council - against the recommendation of its planner - in March of this year.
However, a number of parties had objected to the plan, including Inland Fisheries Ireland who voiced concerns that the pressures in the catchments affected would impact fish populations.
Heritage organisation, An Taisce, also objected to the proposals, arguing the development would have a detrimental impact on the peatlands and natural life in the area.
Responding to An Bord Pleanala's decision, An Taisce said it had considered the site formed part of the internationally significant mountain bog and lake Connemara landscape area. It said the decision follows a number of other similar refusals of permission for windfarm projects by An Bord Pleanala.
This, it claimed, highlights the need for an effective national strategy for future wind energy development to reconcile the imperative of meeting renewable energy targets while at the same time protecting biodiversity and our most iconic landscapes.
